9-11-12-minutes

9-11-12-minutes

The St. Charles City-County Library District Board of Trustees met at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, September 12 at the Administrative Offices located at 77 Boone Hills Dr., St. Peters, Missouri

Board Members present:

· Myra Crook

· John Thoelke

· Mary Reese

· Gary Heggs

· Georganne MacNab

Board members absent:

· Joann Leykam

· Jerry Cook

· Debbie Haupt

· Lisa Pelikan

Library Staff present:

· Jim Brown, Director

· Maggie Preiss, Children’s Resources and Marketing Coordinator

· Richard Schultz, Finance and Support Services Coordinator

· Kristin Williams, Planning & Development Coordinator

· Frank Noto, IT Coordinator

· Sara Nielsen, Community Branches and Adult Programming.

· Ann King, Branch Manager, Kathryn Linnemann Branch

· Martha Radginski, Branch Manager, Middendorf-Kredell

· Laurie St. Laurent, Branch Manager, Spencer Road Branch

· Tim Deghelder, Branch Manager, Deer Run Branch

· Vivienne Beckett, Branch Manager, Kisker Road Branch

· AsiaGross, Branch Manager, McClay Road Branch

· Diana Tucker, Branch Manager, Corporate Parkway Branch

· Lucy Lockley, Collection Development Manager

President Myra Crook called the meeting to order at 7:04 pm with the Pledge of Allegiance. Five members responded to roll call. Ms. Crook opened the floor for public comments. No requests for time were received.

REPORTS

The following reports were included in the Board packet.

· Financial Report—Rick Schultz

· Director’s Report—Jim Brown

Jim Brown pointed out that the District’s legal counsel, John Shaw, had provided an opinion on fund-raising activities in library facilities and the opinion is stated in his report to the Trustees. Based on the information in the opinion from Mr. Shaw, Mr. Brown’s recommendation is that he will “assign three staff members to draft a policy prohibiting fundraising activities in library facilities with an exemption for the Library District and its three affiliated entities: the Library Foundation, Friends of the Library, and Library Building Corporation”.

It is the consensus of the Board to proceed with Jim Brown’s recommendation.

· Monthly Statistical Report

· Activities Report for February and March—Maggie Preiss

· Correspondence

· An updated copy of the District’s Organizational Chart and an initial copy of the Library Bill of Rights, the Freedom to Read statement, and the Freedom to View statement were distributed at the meeting.

Every Child Ready to Read2—Maggie Preiss

The Every Child Ready to Read (ECRR) program is in libraries across the nation to help parents prepare their children to learn to read. Parents are a child’s first and most important teacher. ECRR, though successful in some ways, has also uncovered some need for improvement especially in regard to how the early literacy skills are presented to parents. Skills are developed through five practices: singing, reading, talking, playing, and writing.

Children learn in two separate, unique ways—with unconstrained skills and constrained skills. Constrained skills are learned skills for reading. An example of a constrained skill is the alphabet. It is a “constrained” skill because once letters are taught, there is nothing else to learn about them—an “A” is an “A”. Unconstrained skills are skills needed for learning and to lead to better understanding and learning overall. Some examples of unconstrained skills are vocabulary, comprehension, and background knowledge. ECRR focused on constrained skills; ECRR2 focuses on unconstrained skills. That being said, one new initiative being introduced to the branches in support of ECRR2 is play kits. The play kits are being donated to the branches by the Library Foundation. This is just one initiative; there will be many more initiatives implemented in support of the program.

Another way in which the Library Foundation is helping to promote early literacy and in support of ECRR2, “Take 20 and Read” is a new initiative to help bring the early literacy focus and the library to families who may not otherwise engage in library tools, activities, and programs. Our new Extension Services Specialist will play a key role in the implementation of this new program as well as all early literacy programs, and taking the focus outside the four walls of the library and into the community. The branches will work in each of their own communities to promote “Take 20 and Read” and teach the importance of early literacy in places like the Crisis Nursery, Birthright, WIC Office, and Family Services with programs such as “reading parties”. Reading parties are similar to what we have known in the past as Tupperware parties and, obviously, are gatherings in support of reading and bringing adults and children together to read! The St. Charles City-County Library District staff has really discovered their importance in promoting early literacy and teaching other individuals their roles as well.

Rick Schultz announced the LAGERS 45th Annual Meeting in Springfield, Missouri on October 25, 2012. If you are interested in attending the conference or have any questions, please contact Mr. Schultz. There is no staff attending at this time.

Lucy Lockley, Collection Development Manager, presented a draft of the newly revised Policy D032—the Collection Development Policy. As stated in the Agenda Memo, the current policy was approved in 1997, and was in need of updating. The taskforce formed to review the current policy was a multi-level team of staff and management. The taskforce reviewed the policy and researched other libraries with well-represented policies in place. The new proposed policy combines current Policies D032, D040, and D080. It is more flexible, more representative of the current collection in our branches, shorter, and proposes including the Freedom to View statement. The current policy already includes the Library Bill of Rights and the Freedom to Read statement, but does not include the Freedom to View. The proposed policy also excludes a lot of details that will be found in a procedure manual that is currently being created by the same taskforce, allowing more flexibility within the policy.

Mary Reese commented that the proposed changes and the new policy are easy to read and easy to understand. John Thoelke would like to see the procedures that will accompany the policy, as well as additional time to review the policy, prior to approval of the proposed policy. Ms. Lockley indicated that she can present the procedures to the Board Members upon completion by the taskforce.

13-06 Setting the FY13 Tax Rate

MOTION: John Thoelke moved to open the public hearing to set the FY13 tax rate. Ms. Reese seconded. Motion passed by a roll call vote with the following votes: Myra Crook-yes, John Thoelke-yes, Mary Reese-yes, Gary Heggs-yes, Georganne MacNab-yes.

Ms. Crook opened the floor for public comments or questions. No requests for time were received.

MOTION: Mary Reese moved to close the public hearing and move back into the Formal Agenda. Mr. Thoelke seconded. Motion passed by a roll call vote with the following votes: Myra Crook-yes, John Thoelke-yes, Mary Reese-yes, Gary Heggs-yes, Georganne MacNab-yes.

Rick Schultz provided the newest financial figures in a letter from the County Registrar of St. Charles County. There was some discussion regarding the figures contained in the letter as well as the explanation in the Memorandum from the Missouri State Auditor. In Mr. Schultz’s original agenda memo to the Board, he recommended setting the tax rate at $.2287. However with the receipt of the updated financial figures today, Mr. Schultz is recommending that the Board of Trustees set the FY13 tax rate for the St. Charles City County Library District at $.2181, no increase, or the certified rate by the Missouri State Auditor.

MOTION: Gary Heggs moved to set the FY13 tax rate for the St. Charles City County Library District at $.2181, no increase, or the certified rate by the Missouri State Auditor. John Thoelke seconded. Motion passed five affirmative, zero negative, zero abstentions, and four absent.

Members of the Human Resources Coordinator search committee (present: Vivienne Beckett, Ann King, Rick Schultz, Jim Brown; absent Maggie Preiss) reviewed the process used by the committee and provided information on the experience and qualifications of each of the finalists. Following the presentation the Trustees had an opportunity to ask questions. This portion of the closed session concluded at 9:00 p.m. Members of the Human Resources Coordinator search committee were excused.